Semester:
Offered:
Instructor: Matt Liebmann
Meeting time: Tuesday and Thursday, 12:00 - 1:15
In 1492 Native Americans discovered Europeans, changing the world forever. The European invasion of the Americas triggered demographic, economic, and ecological changes on an unprecedented scale. The subsequent movement of plants, animals, and goods prompted global shifts in population, exploitation of resources, and the transformation of environments on both sides of the Atlantic. What can archaeology tell us about early encounters between Native Americans and Europeans? Why did the European conquest of the Americas play out as it did? This course investigates these questions through the sites where first contacts occurred, the objects exchanged by Native peoples and colonists, and the scars that remain in the ground. Through investigations of first contacts, Indigenous politics, disease epidemics, Native rebellions, and ecological changes, Anthropology 1190 presents a sweeping continent-wide treatment of the historical archaeology of Native Americans between 1492-1800.